"Serving West and East Village, Chelsea, SoHo, NoHo, Little Italy, Chinatown and the Lower East Side"

Volume 76, Number 45 April 4 - 10, 2007

Editorial/Op-EdG.T.S. détente a welcome sign for ChelseaThe General Theological Seminary opened up a new chapter in its year-and-a-half-long battle with Chelsea neighbors, local elected officials and Community Board 4 on Monday when it abandoned its plans for a proposed 15-story tower on Ninth Avenue.

NotebookThe grapes of wrath, the tuna and, ugh, that voiceBy Andrei Codrescu
Overbearing, too loud, nails on blackboard is what I thought the woman behind me on the airplane sounded like. My nerves were a bit rattled from two days in Detroit, admiring urban ruins.

Hartvig Dahl, 83, psychology pioneerBy albert amateau
Dr. Hartvig Dahl, a psychoanalytic research pioneer and a resident of the Village for more than 40 years, died March 17 after a long illness at the age of 83.

Aline Greig, 86, childrens educatorBy Albert Amateau
Aline Greig, a much-loved and innovative leader of Hudson Guild childrens programs from the late 1950s until she retired in 1986, died March 19 at the age of 86 in her Village home where she lived for more than 50 years.

300 true believers get their 9/11 truth from BAI host at St. MarksBy Mary Reinholz
April Fools Day fell this spring on Palm Sunday and it was a solemn occasion at St. Marks Church in the Bowery. There, after Sunday services, some 300 apparent true believers packed the sanctuary in the early afternoon and heard politically charged conspiracy theories surrounding the fall of the World Trade Center five-and-a-half years ago.

Activists want to rein in circus use of wild animalsBy Chris Bragg
In making their point on Saturday that Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is cruel to animals, the League of Humane Voters of New York City was not subtle: Outside Madison Square Garden they chained and beat a person in an elephant costume with the same type of bull hook the circus uses to discipline elephants.

German beer garden owner: Eviction case had racial tonesBy Gerard Flynn
A recent settlement reached between Sylvester Schneider, owner of the East Village bar and restaurant Zum Schneider, and his landlord has left Schneider with mixed feelings about the case and the plaintiffs who were trying to force him out of his space.

Arts and Entertainment

Curating The StoneBy Todd Simmons
Two years ago, John Zorn, 2006 winner of a MacArthur genius grant and longtime veteran of the Downtown music avant-garde, opened The Stone at Avenue C and East 2nd St. as a haven for musicians to get paid and be heard in an intimate setting without the usual nightclub distractions.

Mrs. Garretts girls gone wildBy Will McKinley
The 1980s was truly the Golden Age of terrible TV sitcoms. And one of the worst offenders was The Facts of Life. (Before you write me angry letters, go watch the DVDs. Once you get past the theme song its all down hill.) Of course my little sister loved it, and so did her pre-pubescent girlfriends.

Sweet street artBy Kaija Helmetag
Never has graffiti covered as pristine and sweet-smelling a surface as chocolate  until last week, when chocolatier Alison Nelson debuted a new line of bars designed by ten of New York Citys most legendary graffiti writers.

Food

Rich cookies come in small packagesBy Nicole Davis
One of the most amazing chocolate items Ive ever tasted is a crisp cookie filled with ganache and covered with fine dark chocolate.

Saturday night group expanding safe rides DowntownBy Brooke Edwards
Their motto is Because getting home safely shouldnt be a luxury. For more than two years, the Brooklyn-based nonprofit group RightRides for Womens Safety has been giving free rides to women who feel unsafe traveling home alone. Now, theyre about to expand their services to the rest of Lower Manhattan, including the Lower West Side, from the Battery to 23rd St., and the area south of Chinatown.

Seminary puts out new plan, and is back in good gracesBy Albert Amateau
The General Theological Seminary this week said it would replace its unpopular plan for a 15-story residential tower on Ninth Ave. with a seven-story mixed-use building that conforms to current regulations for the Chelsea Historic District.

Salvation Army residents pray homes will be savedBy Jefferson Siegel
A protest two weeks ago served to remind New Yorkers that the city is losing affordable housing at an accelerated rate. Six hundred more units of affordable housing will vanish if the Salvation Army empties and sells two of its residential buildings in Manhattan.

Save Darfur efforts peak as African crisis continuesBy Brooke Edwards
Local student and human-rights activists are stepping up their grassroots efforts to raise awareness about the continued violence in Darfur, which has been labeled the first genocide of the 21st century.

Pilot program for garbage recycling in Union SquareBy Esther Martin
Last Wednesday, a new recycling program, The Public Space Recycling Pilot, was announced by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty and Councilmember Michael McMahon, chairperson of the Councils Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management.

Renters rock at poetry clubMore than 150 people turned out at the Bowery Poetry Club last month to hear the East Village band Ninth Street Mission, above, play a benefit concert for the tenants of 47 E. Third St.

A cup of tea, brewed with reborn sympathyBy Jerry Tallmer
It was at age 16, in the summer of 1985, at a day camp on Marthas Vineyard, that Jonathan Silverstein just absolutely fell in love with Robert Andersons Tea and Sympathy.

Koch on filmBy Ed KochReign Over Me (+) Normally I would not see a movie starring Adam Sandler. He is a good actor, but I think of his films as being of the slapstick genre joyously viewed by children. The plot of this film, however, is totally different than his usual movies.Avenue Montaigne (+) This is kind of a roundelay  recurring theme  involving a number of people living in Paris who interact with one another.

Sports

Cooper coach engineers winning teams in many sportsBy Judith Stiles
Theres an old saying that behind every great team is a great coach, and that winning championships can be traced back to one man with a fire in his belly who is an expert at motivating players. Sports folklore purports that a team can have a lot of individual talent, but without a great coach to pull it all together, the team will go nowhere.

A PASSION TO PAINT View current gestural abstract paintings as well as paintings from the 70s & 80s, referred to as Symbolic Objects, by Hedy OBeil. Opening reception is Sat., April 14 from 5-8pm. Continues thru May 6. WESTBETH GALLERY, 57 Bethune St. Pictured above is Swing Red, 2006.